Contracts & Strategic Goals

LLEN Contract

The State Labor government has agreed to fund the LLEN Network for a 4 year period (2016-2019). This was the result of a very successful lobbying campaign by the Network and Stakeholders prior to the last State election. The 4 year funding guarantee will provide certainty and ensure more effective long term planning and partnership development. The period from 2010-2017 has and will be a changing landscape for the LLEN Network.

2014 - a one year extension, co-funded by Federal and State governments.

2015 - a one year contract with a promise of a further 4 years, State funded.

Over the course of the 6 years, there have been many and varied contract deliverables and outcomes for young people. Our current contract will provide for 4 years with a review after 2 years.

For 2016/2017 our funding has been provided to assist young people at risk of disengaging, or who have already disengaged from education and training. LLENs will be required to broker sustainable partnerships that support schools to:

identify young people that are at risk of disengaging from education prior to completing Year 12 or a vocational equivalent

identify and provide support, education options and pathways to enable those young people to remain in educatio

and also support the broader community to:

identify young people who have disengaged from education prior to achieving Year 12 or a vocational equivalent

provide support, education options and pathways to enable those young people to re-engage and remain in education

Structured Workplace Learning Contract (SWL)

The current 2015 Workplace Learning Coordinator Program Contract has not been renewed for 2016. On the 19 October 2015, Minister Merlino announced a Reformed Structured Workplace Learning Contract for 2016 which will be delivered by the Statewide LLEN Network. This announcement was in response to recommendations from the Department of Education & Training (DE&T) initiated review of "School-Industry Engagement". The Nous Group review undertaken in 2014/2015 involved extensive consultation with key stakeholders. It evaluated the provision of SWL in Victoria and reviewed best practice models of school-industry engagement. The review found that the existing approach faces challenges of scale, inefficiency, fragmentation, duplication and inconsistency. Nous recommended that:

third party coordination of school-industry engagement at the local level is critical for effective SWL

a central on-line portal to be developed to support local coordinators to provide diverse SWL offerings, making it easier for teachers, schools, businesses and students to access SWL opportunities

It has been decided by allocation of the contract (2016) that LLENs can play a critical role, i.e.

LLENs are ideally positioned to facilitate the reformed service model

LLENs strong community-based governance will support strengthened connections between schools and industry

LLENs have extensive knowledge and experience in driving improvement in youth engagement, transition, attainment and employment at the local level

LLENs established network provides the opportunity to offer students placements in industry areas not available locally

The SWL Contract has been extended for 2017. This contract has been new territory for the BMLLEN and required the appointment of staff with relevant skills, local knowledge and networks.

It is pleasing to note that the BMLLEN, through the work of the Workplace Learning Coordinator, Maria Cox and Workplace Project Officer, Di Debrincat, has been positioned as the highest performing contractor holder of the 31 LLENs from across Victoria with the highest number of SWL & SBAT student placements.